Likud Knesset member Anat Berko arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office on Sept. 24 with a group of experts with whom she about a year ago developed a plan to change the face of Jerusalem. They held an extended meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the course of which Berko showed him a plan for redesigning and partitioning Israel's capital. Such a program, developed by a strong right-winger like Berko, who was personally appointed to Likud's Knesset list by Netanyahu, is no less than a political and diplomatic powder keg.

This was not the first tete-a-tete between Netanyahu and Berko on the volatile subject of Jerusalem. They had sat together several months earlier, when MK Berko showed the prime minister the general principles behind her program to separate from Jerusalem as many Arab-Palestinian neighborhoods as possible. The proclaimed goal is to increase the Jewish majority in the city, reduce the economic burden on the state treasury and improve security. Netanyahu did not authorize the principles or express agreement, but he did encourage Berko to continue to work on the program and present it to him later as a consolidated working paper. That is what transpired on Sept. 24.

Berko, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, previously published an extensive academic paper on suicide bombers and their handlers. Over a 15-year period, she met with numerous Hamas terrorists and other prisoners in Israeli prisons. These included Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who served as Hamas’ spiritual leader until he was assassinated by Israel after his release. Berko’s husband, Reuven Berko, is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. He served in the past as an adviser on Arab affairs to the mayor of Jerusalem.

In the September meeting, Anat Berko presented detailed maps to Netanyahu in which the city was divided into geographic and political regions, differentiated with colors. Digital simulations were also included. According to her plan, almost all the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would be transferred to Palestinian control. In the first stage, they would be under Palestinian civil rule with Israeli security control, like area B of the West Bank. In the final stage, they would have area A status, that is full Palestinian control. This would decrease Jerusalem's population by 300,000 Palestinians, leaving some 30,000 Palestinians alongside the more than half a million Jewish residents of the city. The Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem would grow from the current less than 70% to more than 95%. Israel would be spared the billions of shekels it now pays in National Social Insurance payments and various stipends to the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, who have permanent residency status in Israel.